When he was younger he had to move to a smaller home in Brooklyn, New York City due to The Great Depression.
This home was the model for the Brooklyn house in Death of a Salesman.
Arthur Miller read The Brothers Karamazov, and it made him decide that he wanted to become a writer.
He went to University of Michigan and studied Journalism and Literature.
While attending the University of Michigan he won many awards for his play-wrights.
In 1938, he graduated and returned to New York City where he joined the Federal Theater Project and wrote scripts for radio programs.
He wrote scripts for CBS, and NBC.
During this time the military was drafting men for WWII, luckily he dodged the draft due to a football injury.
In 1940, he got married to his first wife Mary Slattery which was his college sweetheart.
He had two children with her.
In 1944, His first Broadway play The Man Who Had All The Luck was produced.
It closed after only four performances.
A few years later he produced his next Broadway show All My Sons.
This play was about a factory owner who sold malfunctioning aircraft parts in WWII.
It won Three awards: Two Tony Awards and an award from the New York Drama Critics Circle.
In 1944, He toured military camps in order to get background information for his screenplay The Story of G.I. Joe.
The Story of G.I. Joe came out in 1945
In 1945, he wrote his first novel Focus, which was centered around anti-Semitism.
In the 1950s, he was accused of being a communist.
In 1953, The Crucible was produced.
Which is based on the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.
This won the Antoinette Perry Award and was his most Produced play.
In 1955, A View From The Bridge, was produced.
In 1956, he married Marilyn Monroe and divorced five years later in 1961.
Marilyn Monroe died one year later.
Wrote a screenplay about his wife called The Misfits
He was honored with an award from Spain for his literature in 2002.
Which made him the first American to ever receive this award.
He wrote his last play, Finishing The Picture, which was produced in 2004.
On February 10th, 2005 Arthur Miller died from heart failure in Roxbury Connecticut.
Arthur Miller's Influence on American Theater
Arthur Miller’s Influence and Impact on American Theater
After WWII, Arthur Miller transformed the American theater.
Previous to Miller, plays mainly focused on the upper class people of America. Miller changed the American Theater by writing plays that focused on the common man and working class people. This allowed more people, especially the working class, to relate to the story and the characters.
The Great Depression also influenced many of Millers plays and characters he created. He liked to write about the flaws and reality of the American Dream. His plays showed the real struggles people had to overcome in America, unlike many other plays of that time.
Showed the flaws of the American Dream in his plays
"The American Dream is the largely unacknowledged screen in front of which all American writing plays itself out," Arthur Miller
Miller believed the theater could “change the world”. He saw playwriting as a way to change America.
"Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But hes' a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him."
Arthur Miller Biography
- He was born in 1915, in Harlem, New York City.
- When he was younger he had to move to a smaller home in Brooklyn, New York City due to The Great Depression.
- This home was the model for the Brooklyn house in Death of a Salesman.
- Arthur Miller read The Brothers Karamazov, and it made him decide that he wanted to become a writer.
- He went to University of Michigan and studied Journalism and Literature.
- While attending the University of Michigan he won many awards for his play-wrights.
- In 1938, he graduated and returned to New York City where he joined the Federal Theater Project and wrote scripts for radio programs.
- He wrote scripts for CBS, and NBC.
- During this time the military was drafting men for WWII, luckily he dodged the draft due to a football injury.
- In 1940, he got married to his first wife Mary Slattery which was his college sweetheart.
- He had two children with her.
- In 1944, His first Broadway play The Man Who Had All The Luck was produced.
- It closed after only four performances.
- A few years later he produced his next Broadway show All My Sons.
- This play was about a factory owner who sold malfunctioning aircraft parts in WWII.
- It won Three awards: Two Tony Awards and an award from the New York Drama Critics Circle.
- In 1944, He toured military camps in order to get background information for his screenplay The Story of G.I. Joe.
- The Story of G.I. Joe came out in 1945
- In 1945, he wrote his first novel Focus, which was centered around anti-Semitism.
- In the 1950s, he was accused of being a communist.
- In 1953, The Crucible was produced.
- Which is based on the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.
- This won the Antoinette Perry Award and was his most Produced play.
- In 1955, A View From The Bridge, was produced.
- In 1956, he married Marilyn Monroe and divorced five years later in 1961.
- Marilyn Monroe died one year later.
- Wrote a screenplay about his wife called The Misfits
- He was honored with an award from Spain for his literature in 2002.
- Which made him the first American to ever receive this award.
- He wrote his last play, Finishing The Picture, which was produced in 2004.
- On February 10th, 2005 Arthur Miller died from heart failure in Roxbury Connecticut.
Arthur Miller's Influence on American TheaterArthur Miller’s Influence and Impact on American Theater
Video & Podcast
Arthur Miller & Marylin Monroe Video
Death of a Salesman
News articles
Arthur Miller is Dead
Arthur Miller
Works Cited:
http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/miller/biography.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/amiller.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0LOsi6WZK0
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4495835